SON OF FORMER LIBYAN DICTATOR MUAMMAR GADDAFI , SAIF AL - ISLAM TO RUN FOR LIBYAN PRESIDENCY IN 2018.GADDAFI WHO RULED LIBYA SINCE 1969 WAS CAPTURED AND KILLED BY REBELS IN OCTOBER 2011.WILL SAIF AL - ISLAM TO IMITATE HIS FATHER?

Colonel Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam sentenced to death for murder and inciting genocide.Since the end of the civil war, Saif al-Islam has been held by a militia in Zintan, which is allied with the Tobruk-based internationally-recognised government against the Tripoli one.He is also wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity.During the trial, Saif al-Islam was accused of recruiting mercenaries who were given Libyan nationality, planning and carrying out attacks on civilian targets from the air, forming armed groups and shooting into crowds of demonstrators.

Saif al-Islam, whose name means sword of Islam lived in a £10m mansion in Hampstead, London (before the 2011 Arab spring) and was awarded a contentious PhD. from the London School of Economics and had impressive connections including with hedge fund investors.Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was arrested in November 2011 by a militia from the city of Zintan, when he was travelling by car towards the border with the Niger.The Appeal Court in Tripoli on July 24, 2015, sentenced him in absentia with the death sentence on charges of “crimes against the Libyan people” committed during the so-called revolution on February 17.However, the Zintans categorically refused to hand over the prisoner to the capital authorities, who were repeatedly at odds with the fall of the former regime, and in the beginning of June Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was released from Zintan prison.

Libya and Gaddafi are a good lesson to those who lust after a benevolent dictator.Libya's former president Muammar Gaddafi's second oldest son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, is expected to run for Libya's presidential elections in 2018 and is likely to announce his plans soon. Saif was released in June this year, six years after former-president Gaddafi's ouster and death. Saif was charged with war crimes and imprisoned for five years.Saif, 45, is also been seen as a potential reformist successor to his father, the one who could probably help in bridging the gap between country's rival factions and settle the ongoing state of anarchy in the country. Saif "enjoys support from some of the prominent tribes in Libya", a factor that can swing the election results in his favour if he announces his intention to contest the elections that are scheduled for mid-2018 in Libya.Meanwhile, Eastern Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar called the UN-backed government "obsolete" hinting at the probability of contesting the presidential polls. Seeking to rebuild their influence, they present Saif as someone who can help reconcile the country's rival factions, though he was imprisoned for alleged war crimes for five years.The platform includes some procedures that Saif al-Islam hopes the United Nations would adopt to help Libya move from the incumbent transitional period to stability.Saif al-Islam plans to impose more security and stability in accordance with the Libyan geography and in coordination with all Libyan factions.'Saif, who was initially convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death in 2015, was released from prison in June.His release came six years after an uprising in 2011 that ousted and killed his father and plunged Libya into anarchy.The large North African country has been in turmoil since Gaddafi's downfall opened up space to Islamist militants and smuggling networks that have sent hundreds of thousands of migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe.Earlier reports that Saif had been freed from Zintan turned out to be false and there have long been conflicting rumors about his status. No physical evidence of his whereabouts has been offered. Saif was last seen by an independent international observer in June 2014..A Tripoli court sentenced Saif to death in absentia in 2015 for war crimes, including killing protesters during the revolution. He was still wanted under that conviction and that an investigation had been launched into his reported release.Libya slid into turmoil after Muammar Gaddafi’s overthrow, with rival governments and armed alliances competing for power. A U.N.-backed government in Tripoli has struggled to impose its authority and has been rejected by factions in the east.Zintan, which gained military importance through its role in the 2011 uprising and has been at odds with authorities in Tripoli, had refused to hand Saif over. He is also sought by the International Criminal Court, which says his trial in Libya did not meet international standards.Saif Al-Islam was released in June this year after six years of captivity by a militia group in the Libyan town of Zintan.He
is wanted by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity during his
father’s unsuccessful attempts to put down the rebellion that eventually
led to the fall of his regime

Gaddafi's son Saif al Islam is released from prison by rebels in western Libya.The dead dictator's son, the most high profile of his eight children, remains on the International Criminal Court's wanted list.He was sentenced to death by a court in Tripoli two years ago and remains on the wanted list of the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

Gaddafi had ten children, two of whom were adopted. Saif al-Islam is his second oldest son.Three of Gadaffi's sons were killed in the uprising, including former National Security Adviser Mutassim Gaddafi, who died on the same day of his family.Gaddafi's eldest son, Muhammad, was also regarded as a possible successor as Libya's leader but is reporedly uninterested in the role.His third son, Al-Saadi, is the a former footbal player who was arrested in Niger in 2014 annd faces murder charges in connection to the death of another football player.Alongside the two rival administrations, mostly Islamic militias wield considerable influence and control large swathes of territory in the vast North African nation.The poll led to an escalation of armed conflict and to rival parliaments and governments being set up in the capital and the east.Saif al-Islam Gaddafi graduated with a bachelor of science degree in engineering science from Tripoli's Al Fateh University in 1994. However, there is another report stating that he is an architect. He earned an MBA from Vienna's IMADEC business schoolin 2000.His paintings made up the bulk of the international Libyan art exhibit, "The Desert is Not Silent" (2002–2005), a show which was supported by a host of international corporations with direct ties to his father's government, among them the ABB Group and Siemens.Gaddafi was awarded a PhD degree in 2008 from the London School of Economics, where he attended amid a series of contacts between the school and the Libyan political establishment. He presented a thesis on "The role of civil society in the democratisation of global governance institutions: from 'soft power' to collective decision-making?"Examined by Meghnad Desai (London School of Economics) and Anthony McGrew (University of Southampton), among the LSE academics acknowledged in the thesis as directly assisting with it were Nancy Cartwright, David Held and Alex Voorhoeve (the son of former Dutch minister Joris Voorhoeve). Professor Joseph Nye of Harvard University is also thanked for having read portions of the manuscript and providing advice and direction.Furthermore, allegations abound that Saif's thesis was in many parts ghost-written by consultants from Monitor Group, which pocketed $3 million per year in fees from Muammar Gaddafi.Gaddafi was a revolutionary dictator that replaced an autocrat, so he satisfies the original definition of ‘tyrant.’ He maintained the monarchy’s ban on political parties, banned unions (1970) and both suspended newspapers and banned labor strikes (1972). Both the US and the UK supported Gaddafi.Beginning in 1970, he nationalized foreign direct investments in Libya, so Gaddafi also meets the criteria for a 20th century ‘communist.’ For a time, he also indulged in state-sponsored terrorism, for which he got bombed and sanctioned.In modern usage, ‘tyrant’ usually means cruel or oppressive rule, but it doesn’t distinguish the target. Since the early 1970s, Libya has been a magnet for the dispossessed of Africa. Faced with domestic wage erosion and civil unrest, Gaddafi periodically used the military to drive illegal immigrants out of Libya.With Lake Chad shrinking rapidly, in this go-round Libya’s illegal immigration crisis was particularly severe, as was Gaddafi’s response. However, the neighbors, particularly Europe, had problems of their own. They acted to stem the flow. Instant Arab Spring. No more Gaddafi.